|
We asked users of the
K12-LTSP distribution to tell us about how they are using terminals in
their schools. Last year (2005) there were over 500,000 downloads of K12LTSP. If you have a casestudy or success story you'd like to publish, please create an account on K12OS.org and publish it as a news story in the Casestudy category. |
| Paul Nelson Thu May 10 22:00:36 2001 E-mail: pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us School Name: Riverdale Grade School |
| Location: Portland, OR - USA School Info: K-8, 350 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Dual Xeon 450/2mb cache from Intel/STRUT, 1.5gb ram, 18gig uw/scsi HS Terminals: 25 BookPC's from Amptron. Normal use is StarOffice, Mozilla and Gimp. /home is nfs mounted on server so users have access to files from Windows, Mac and Linux workstations. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Xeon cpu's free from STRUT, Case $75, Supermicro MB $500, HD $300, RAM $600 (then...) = $1,475 Terminals @ $156 + $35 for 128mb SDRAM w/free Celeron CPU from STRUT = $191 Total cost for 25 workstations and server was $6,250 (But I think we can still add another 10 terminals...) |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications: We
offered very little training. I just showed students that they could save
StarOffice files as .doc .rtf and .ppt files for use on Windows
workstations. The kids picked up on it right away and enjoyed configuring
their desktops and work environments. |
| Jeffrey Elkner Fri May 11 06:47:35 2001 E-mail: jeff@elkner.net School Name: Yorktown High School |
| Location: Arlington, VA School Info: 9-12, 1500 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Dual Xeon 733Mhz with 1.5Gig RAM Terminals: 15 Amptron BookPCs |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server $3000 Terminals: $3450 |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications: We were
using stand alone Linux machines already, so the only adjustment for the
students was getting used to having things load so much faster! ;-) |
| Jeff Johnson Thu
Jun 28 14:17:30 2001 E-mail: jbj@jbj.org (jbj@redhat.com) School Name: Red Hat Inc. |
| Location: 2600 Meridian Parkway, Durham NC School Info: post-grad, ~600 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We haven't yet installed. |
| Outline the costs of installation: |
| Comment on migration to Linux
based desktop applications: Give a shout if you need something,
changes to packages,
additional packages that should be included in the Red Hat
distro, or support help, $$$, and I'll try to help.
|
| Kevin Boone Sat
Jul 14 05:56:46 2001 E-mail: Keboone@bcps.k12.md.us School Name: Southern High School |
| Location: 1100 Covington Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21230 School Info: 9-12, 1300+ |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Toshiba 3010 upgraded to dual PII processors, 512 mb ram, Cirrus GL5480 video controller and a NEC multisyn monitor; Workstations are Toshiba 7100 w/32 mb ram, PIII processor, with Intel EEpro100 integrated network controller. |
| Outline the costs of installation: No Cost other than the CDs... |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Basic installation was fine...the real challenge will be when the
students return in the fall.
|
| Kris A. Wotipka / Adam
Melancon Wed Aug 22 21:23:09 2001 E-mail: kris@louisiana-online.net School Name: Vermilion Parish Library |
| Location: Abbeville, La School Info: n/a |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We have been looking into a linux based system for the patrons. This setup is not unlike those based in an educational setting. We have just started and are looking at the system and a few modifications that we might need to make for our purposes. We are also working to try to get some of these in a lab type situation in some of our local schools. Current system is as follows: Dual 266P2 system with one 400mhz AMD e- machine acting as client. Working at getting other machines around the library into a 100 base network so we can use them as test machines. |
| Outline the costs of installation: None..... everything belongs to either Adam or myself. Hoepfully there will be funding to build a new system. A couple of processors donated would be nice :) |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: There are several technical issues that we are trying
to work out. I am not 100% sure that this system will be the best for
our needs at the library. However, it will be great for a class setting
where they can pop boot disks into their windows machines and have a
Linux lab.
|
| Chris Hobbs Wed
Aug 22 21:30:03 2001 E-mail: chobbs@silvervalley.k12.ca.us School Name: Silver Valley High School |
| Location: Yermo, CA, USA School Info: 9-12, 520 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We have a slightly unusual configuration - we run six application servers (all loaded now with K12-LTSP), one file server which exports /home to the six app servers, and one file server which boots the 140 terminals across the campus. Typical usage is StarOffice for word processing/spreadsheets, and Netscape Communicator for Internet access. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Details of the costs of our system are available here: <a href='http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/~chobbs/xterms/cost.html'> http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/~chobbs/xterms/cost.html</a>. We upgraded the terminals themselves last year, and those costs are outlined here: <a href='http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/~chobbs/xterms/200101update.html' > http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/~chobbs/xterms/200101update.html</a& gt;. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: The first 5 desktop machines we switched to Linux were
a real eye-opener - after telnetting in (try _that_ on a Windows box), I
was surprised to see that kids had started to immediately download their
favorite games - in .exe and .zip format! They didn't even realize right
away that they were now in KDE, not Windows. To me, this says a lot about
kids' ability to adapt to a changing computing environment. Teachers, on
the other hand... ;)
|
| Malcolm Herbert
Thu Aug 23 12:49:29 2001 E-mail: mherbert@redhat.com School Name: Ocker Hill Junior School |
| Location: Ocker Hill, Tipton, West Midlands UK School Info: 7-9 years 65 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Toshiba 510D Magnia server (entry-level), 256Mb memory (needs increase :-) 16 terminals, Pentium I 166MHz 16-32Mb memory, all refurbished, 10Mbps network cards Range of monitors. All day, every day use, operated on 2 pupils per machine, productivity tools, email/Internet access etc etc |
| Outline the costs of installation: All blagged or recycled. Toshiba provided the server. Clients reclaimed from local district council, power paid for by local district grant and network cabling done by friendly techie. Estimated total cost from scratch would be UK£3000 (around USD 4200). Cost per seat ~ £300 / USD 400 to include remote management, Internet connection, ie complete managed service |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Some M$ computer equipment on site, but case of finding
and using whats available. StarOffice, GIMP and others provide
productivity tools, but there will be a range of other applications
|
| Kirk Rheinlander
Sun Sep 9 10:28:01 2001 E-mail: kirk@kpj2.com School Name: Ridgeview Classical School (Public Charter) |
| Location: Ft. Collins, CO School Info: K-11, 435 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 3 Netfinity 4500R, 2 processor, 2 gb RAM, dual 160 m/sec SCSI, 9.1 gb hot plug drives. One is a Win4Lin machine, one if the Internet gateway, LDAP, Web Server, EMail server, backup server (DLT installed) 1 is an LTSP server 1 Netfinity 6000r, 1 XEON, 6.5 gb RAM, dual 160 mb/sec SCSI 1 Compaq Proliant 1850r, 18 gb, 384mb RAM - with Intel Dialogic Phone Trunk and Station cards, and Televantage PCPBX software, running the phone system. Network is a 3Com 9400 core gigabit collapsed backbone switch, with fiber to the classrooms (groups of 3) and a 3Com 3300SX 24 port 10/100 switch with gigabit uplink. 21 multimedia PC/WinME machines for teachers; 4 laptops with Win2k for Admin and Principals, and 80 486/25-33 (ISA), P60-133 machines (PCI) setup as DISKLESS workstations, 3-4 per class |
| Outline the costs of installation: Old line PCs donated, everything else bought at auction from failed dot-coms. Total retail value ~$300k, our cost $50k New school, with a state technology grant to "get off the ground" |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: None required - new school (blank slate)
ENFORCED StarOffice on the Windows machines, so that teachers and
adminstrators would be using the same stuff as students. ALL software
that does not REQUIRE the multimedia PC to run, is run from a server.
Win4Lin is in place for those few (hopefully, fewer in the future)
Windows specific applications.
|
| Tommy Orndorff
Wed Oct 3 19:16:34 2001 E-mail: tommy@orndorff.com School Name: Northwest & Weaver (travel school) |
| Location: Guilford County; Greensboro, North Carolina School Info: 9-12, ~3000/~2500 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Availible hardware: Servers: Compaq Proliant Dual PIII 900 Workstations: [Currently] IBM Desktops (PIII 733) |
| Outline the costs of installation: n/a |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: I am currently a Senior at my high school and I am at a
position with great influence towards technology deployment and
maintenance (due to lack of tech support for the county students are
allowed, voluntarily, to help secure, repair and maintain services in the
school). I would like to implement LTSP in several of the classrooms
before new workstations are purpased and new licenses are received from
MS.
I must be able to present my information logically soon to a panel of
personnel at the school. They are all very open to new things,
especially with technology. I would like to give them the option of
turning a [currently unused] Proliant into a terminal server and
workstations into partially-diskless clients. The labs I would like to
deploy this in unfortunately has Novell NetWare 4.11/5 taught in it so
Windows is unfortunately required (at the moment; attempting to port out
admin software).
If at all possible, could anyone help me with gathering information (cost
saving, etc). And I am going with the assumption that the Etherboot
project can be simply put onto a bootable floppy and used instead of NICs
with eproms. This will give hte option of only using the [swappable]
HD's when needed and for which class.
Any information or pointers would be helpful, but please keep in mind
this will only work if I can answer very thorough questions and be VERY
informed about the situation.
Thank you.
PS. If this is the wrong place for this, please tell me where I should
inquire ;)
|
| Tom Possin Sun
Nov 11 08:48:52 2001 E-mail: tpossin@ywammt.org School Name: Youth With A Mission of MT |
| Location: Lakeside MT School Info: Adult education |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We have an office and 2 dorms. I have set up email terminals with LTSP in both dorms. And we are currently in the process of migrating from MS to Linux in our office. LTSP will play a large roll in this move because we can then yank our older hard drives and continue to use our current hardware. allowing us to focus on tasks and maybe special software rather than continuously spend money and time on the hardward/software merry-go-round. Currently we run 2 LTSP servers and about 12+ terminals (some dual boot) we eventually will be in the 30-40 terminal range within 12 months however. I have been running diskless terminals for about a year. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Cheap. With 1.x gig chips and boards selling for a couple hundred bucks and memory selling at rediculous rates. Building a server is no big deal finacially even if you splurge and get very fast SCSI controlers and drives. With the cost of upgrade at $0 and the ability to recycle equipment that would have been given away or junked we can spend money on big monitors which gives people the feeling of a new machine for around $200 per terminal since we already have the hardware. so even at the current fire sale prices on the PC market this is less than 1/3 the cost per seat not counting software upgrades. And all the tentacles MS seams intent on wrapping around our throats. Not to mention the work saved from not having to fight off endless virus attacks. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
This is the BIG question. Obviously I have fully migrated to Linux long
ago. But just this fall when looking at $ and security issues at our
location we decided to go with linux and open source (star office) It
will work for most people with very little pain since the bulk of the
work done in this kind of office is correspondence of one kind or
another. This can be done with virtually anything that types. However the
bigger challenges are migrating from custom Access apps to something?
else without losing function. We are currently thinking of going with DB2
and using staroffice as a front end but this is just theory because we
have not had time to test it. we have no hard core coders. I know perl,
some php, and VBA (I developed apps for years with Access so this is the
hard part) But nevertheless it will happen and I believe cost will go
down and reliability will go up. we may be forced to run a mixed network
for quite some time though and this does not look like all that much fun.
The new features of samba may make this a little less painful though. I
have already migrated everyones home directory to a linux file server
that runs SMB/NIS as a central storage server between the platforms. And
have built a custom hard drive backup machine in a different building
using rsync to eliminate proprietary tape systems that did not work out
well for us in the real world. This setup is fast cheap and fully
automated restorations are drag and drop. so I would say we are over 50%
of th way home on this with a couple of big challenges ahead.
|
| John Dooley (mother
Maths teacher) Thu Dec 20 08:35:03 2001 E-mail: lastword@ntlworld.com School Name: Holden Lane HS |
| Location: Stoke On Trent (Midlands) UK School Info: Ages 11-16, ~2000 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server will be ~1ghz, 256- 512mb (depends on mem prices), hd 20-60gb (hardly any price difference at computer fair). Typical terminals will be of pentium range, s3 video cards. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Work stations from other school which were disposed of are being reused (won't they be pleased when they see this). Server approx £300 with some reused parts. Hub and all wires provided. |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: This system is not yet
in place in the school, but is in place at one of the maths teachers
homes where we are trial running its capabilities on 10 workstations. So
far so good, simply amazing compared to Cyrix terminal (windows) when
testing internet speeds/ file system etc. Won't be long b4 maths
department segments itself away from main network and becomes a rouge
network ;)
|
| Derek Dresser
Thu Jan 3 16:52:16 2002 E-mail: dresserd@gouldacademy.org School Name: Gould Academy |
| Location: Bethel, Maine School Info: 9-12, 230 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Dell Dual PIII 733Mhz with fast SCSI drives and 2G of RAM. We have a lab with 18 terminals (P166's) and various terminals around campus (486/33's) for a total of about 35 workstations. I have set up IceWM as the default window manager because of the low profile, speed, configurability and simple interface. Our LTSP installation is fully integrated with a legacy Novell system. We use NDS (novell directory services) for authentication and all user files are stored on the novell server. This may change ;-) Typical use is by students for writing papers (Star office), surfing (opera, konqueror), and AOL instant messenger. Also, the kids really like some of the games. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server was about $5,000. Workstations were retired machines that we already had. so the cost was about $35/per for bootable ethernet cards. The real impact has been in ongoing costs for maintenance, software upgrades, etc. We literally haven't had to set foot in our lab for workstation maintenance in a year! |
| Comment on migration to
Linux based desktop applications: Our system has been operational for
almost a year now. Reliability has been remarkable. The server has been
down for a total of about 1/2 hour of unscheduled time since the
beginning of the school year. Students have had very little trouble
migrating to the Linux workstations, though some do grumble about it.
Faculty are very resistant to change ;-) It has freed up uncountable
hours of time to work on new projects and things we never would have
gotten to before like our new Beowulf cluster!
|
| Caleb Wagnon Tue
Apr 16 07:23:16 2002 E-mail: mwagnon@seark.net School Name: J.E. Wallace Elementary |
| Location: Fordyce, Arkansas School Info: 3-5 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Dell PowerEdge 4600, Dual 1.8ghz xeon, 4 gb ddr. We're using 60 thinknics for terminals and using the sound package. They do Open Office and are printing to a tektronix 850n. Netscape is used for our online curriculum. Gnome is my current window manager but I'm checking on IceWM. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server= $6500 Thinknics = $250 x 60 |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
This school was fairly lacking in technology so microsoft would have been
just as new to them as linux. Redhat has been accepted well!
|
| William McCloskey
Fri May 17 21:59:08 2002 E-mail: wj@bensonhs.net School Name: Benson Polytechnic High School |
| Location: Portland, OR School Info: 9-12, 1500 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Intel NetStructure 1300 Web Caching system(PIII/750, 1 gig of ram, 9 gig Fast SCSI HD). We found the server in a pile of misc. servers at StRUT. The number of terminals is not a set ammount as we are expanding. But we currently have 5 terminals in place and plan to upgrade soon. Terminals are IBM Desktops that had on-board bootable ethernet. |
| Outline the costs of installation: We did it all with out spending a penny. All the equipment was found at StRUT. The server was complete at strut and all we had to do was add a video card. The terminals only required testing and monitors. We used monitors either from StRUT or monitors we had on hand. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: The teacher who now has these terminals in his class
room was MORE than pleased moving from windows 95 on P200's to Linux on a
P120. The terminals are faster and eaiser to use then his old computers,
more stable, and MUCH more secure.
|
| Jaroslaw Zachwieja
Tue May 21 02:09:52 2002 E-mail: grokN.Ospam@tnt.pl School Name: IV Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Kazimierza Wielkiego |
| Location: Bydgoszcz/Poland/Europe School Info: 13- 19 y/o 800 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Pentium IIIEB/800, 512MB RAM, Abit mobo, 10 Gig HD (system) 20 Gig HD (/home). ~35 Terminals, all diskless, booted via floppy. Server software Mandrake 8.1+LTSP 3.0, OpenOffice 1.0, KDE 2.2.2. Network switched 100MB, Multiple star topology. 3 NIC's in server machine, each for separate network segment of ~10 computers. 2 outside links, 128kbps each, load balanced with "3-squids-and-some-source-routing" trick. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server ~$900, Switches + cabling ~$1000. All terminals were present on installation. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: THE END of Win95 mayhem, endless re-
installations, viruses, pirated software and others. Pupils and teachers
are back where they are supposed to be - work and fun. ;^)
|
| Chris Curtis Mon
Jul 15 16:55:09 2002 E-mail: chriscurtis@spamcop.net School Name: Bonner County Schools |
| Location: Bonner County Idaho School Info: 5-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: No installation. Plenty of community support. The district office has refused to even look at LTSP |
| Outline the costs of installation: They have plenty of equipment, and the kids want to do work like this |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Our school has been on a roller coaster for the last few years. It only
gets worse. Even when the districts lies are proven to be false they
still just hide from the truth. Now they are too scared of M$ to even
try.
We will have to wait until they are fired/laid off/pass away before we se
any type of improvement.
|
| Jim Thomas Fri
Aug 2 10:17:28 2002 E-mail: jthomas@bittware.com School Name: Vienna Adventist Academy |
| Location: Vienna, VA School Info: K-12, 100 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server is an AMD Athlon 1800 (1.53GHz) 1GB RAM, two 40GB HD's set up as RAIDs. 22 clients are Dell 133MHz Pentium 32M RAM boxen. We also upgraded from 10Mbit hubs to 100Mbit switches. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server ~$900 (bought in 2002) Clients were $150 each (bought in 2000) 2 SMC 16-port 100Mbit switchs, $70 each. |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: The clients were
originally installed with RH6.2. StarOffice
was painfully slow. We nearly upgraded to RH7.0 in 2001, but
KDE 2.0 was not responsive enough, so we stuck with RH6.2
& KDE 1.1. Unfortunately, this meant we could not run many
of the cool new edu apps (TuxType, TuxMath, et al). With LTSP
we are running all of these as well as OpenOffice.
|
| Paul Nelson Mon
Nov 4 20:32:07 2002 E-mail: pnelson@riverdale.k12.or.us School Name: Riverdale High School |
| Location: Portland, Oregon - USA School Info: 9-12, 200 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 4 terminal servers: Dual Xeon 1.8mhz, 4gig ram ide drives. /home nfs mounted from a fast scsi server. 80-100 terminals. Use is heavy OpenOffice, web browsing and email. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Servers 4 @ $3,400 each. Clients with 15" flat LCD displays were $450 each. Full case study at http://k12ltsp.org/rhs_casestudy.html |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
It works. It's VERY fast. With no training for kids and only one hour
for staff were doing just fine. It's just not that tough to point and
click...
|
| Daniel Bo Thu
Nov 7 19:36:13 2002 E-mail: danielbo@clickta.com School Name: Uncle Dan's |
| Location: Pakkret, Thailand School Info: Pre1 - 4, 30 |
| Describe your K12- LTSP installation: Server (??): Duron 850, 256Mb RAM, 40Gb IDE 133 drive + 10Gb IDE 100 drive. Clients: 7 Dell Optiplex GXM 5133, P133, 16Mb RAM, S3 Trio64V+ 1Mb video, onboard Vibra16 and 3C509 10Mbit NIC, used 14" monitors (Reception has eepro100 added). 1 Planet 8 port SOHO switch |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: 20000 Baht - about US$500 Clients:900 Baht each - about US$22 surplus from Japan Monitors: 7 x 1200 Baht used =7200 - about US$150 Switch: 3600 Baht - about US$85 Cabling: 900 Baht -- about US$22 Total cost: Under 42000 Baht - US$1000 or US$142 per client including server cost. An additional 7 clients could be added for about 25000 Baht or US$68 each |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Php and MySQL software was developed
specifically for this setup to help with language teaching. Virtually no
issues whatsoever. Thai language support for many programs required
changing to local variants (OfficeTLE and Pladao Office replaced
OpenOffice). Icewm as the desktop with the win95 theme solves any
confusion on the students' part. Completely successful from the
start.
|
| Eduardo Allende
Wed Dec 11 19:36:58 2002 E-mail: eallendedatel.cl School Name: COLEGIO SINAI |
| Location: IQUIQUE - CHILE (SOUTHAMERICA) School Info: NB1 - NB6, 450 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Pentium III 1,2Gh, 1GB Ram. Terminals: 17 Celeron 64/128MB with 17" monitor. Software: K12-LTSP with latest updates. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: US$ 2.500. Terminals: US$ 500 x 17. Software: US$ 0 |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: No migration. The School start with Thin-Client
platform and use Open Software only. We hope to grow the next year to 40
Terminals.
|
| Javier Roco Sat
Mar 15 08:49:13 2003 E-mail: saruman@mail.cl School Name: Colegio Comercial Computacional Santa Sara |
| Location: Antofagasta - Chile School Info: Technical High School |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: AMD Athlon 1.7+, 256Mb RAM, 30Gb HDD, Motherboard m841. Clients: 9 old 486DX4/100, diskless, 8mb RAM, Video 256Kb, and 1 AMD K6 300Mhz, 32mb RAM, Video 1 Mb, diskless. 10 Mbps Hub, K12LTSP 3.0.1 Distro |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: Around $350, Clients: 486,Old equipment from school. K6 was a win98 box, but it won't boot up windows. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Configuring the server was painful, because m841 has several
incompabilities with Linux, so takes me a week configuring it. Once
installed and running, the AMD box runs perfectly, but the old 486
won't run XFree, after all, they only have 256kb RAM, but Xvesa saved
my life. Now all 10 runs IceWm and OpenOffice for teaching Office
Aplications.
|
| Scott Glass Sun
Mar 23 14:59:11 2003 E-mail: sglass@rebootquebec.org School Name: Riverdale |
| Location: Montreal, Quebec School Info: 7 -11 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: PII dual 450mhz server, 1.2ghz server with 200gb Hard Drive, 2 Gig ram. 20 PI 166mhz Compaq workstations (Donated by reBOOT Quebec) www.rebootquebec.org |
| Outline the costs of installation: Less then $5000 overall. Many volenteer hours... |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Amazing solution!
|
| Richard Rothwell
Wed Apr 9 05:00:18 2003 E-mail: rrothwell@schoolforge.org.uk School Name: Handsworth Grammar School |
| Location: Birmingham, UK School Info: 7-13, 950 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We ran a trial last month using existing equipment and a borrowed server. A class setup took about a day to construct! |
| Outline the costs of installation: Everything borrowed. |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: We are planning to
move most of the academic network to K12ltsp running open source software
for September. Have a look at:
|
| Kanchan Wed Apr
9 06:02:05 2003 E-mail: kanchan_s_j@rediffmail.com School Name: SDM College of Engg, Karnataka, INDIA |
| Location: INDIA School Info: |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: i would like to know how to install LTSP for DHCP working |
| Outline the costs of installation: |
| Comment on migration to Linux
based desktop applications: it's very advantageous
|
| Richard K. Ingalls
Wed Apr 9 08:17:04 2003 E-mail: awm002@mail.connect.more.net School Name: Glenwood R-8 |
| Location: West Plains, MO School Info: PreK - 8, 300 |
| Describe your K12- LTSP installation: Upper Grades Writing Lab (1 server, 9 clients - so far) Server: P4 - 2.4 Ghz, 1 Gb RAM, 18 Gb SCSI drive Terminals: (9) PII - 450 Mhz, 64 Mb RAM Use: 7th & 8th Grade writing lab (internet research, OpenOffice word processing & presentation software). |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: $1250 (including monitor) Clients: $290 each (including monitor) TOTAL COST: $5900 (including all hardware, cables, tables, laser printer and projector)!! |
| Comment on migration to Linux
based desktop applications: Straight-forward setup. Slight
"tweaking" of configuration files for monitor refresh rates and
for squid / squidguard internet filtering.
I've also set up a Linux (Apache) webserver and I use the K12LTSP box
as a file server for all the new Linux boxes I install (so users can log
on virtually anywhere in the network and have access to ALL their
files!).
|
| Joseph Oneill
Mon Apr 14 00:05:03 2003 E-mail: jandals28@hotmail.com School Name: College of Micronesia - Pohnpei Campus |
| Location: Pohnpei - Micronesia School Info: K8~K12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: server, Dell Dimension PIII 450, 192Mb ram, workstations (for now) 1 Dell dim. PIII 450 64Mb, 1 Micron powerstation P100 with 16Mb ram and 1 Gateway P120. |
| Outline the costs of installation: no $$$, machines already on site. the hdd's in the older pc's have started dying one by one, if we hadnt stumbled across k12ltsp, the boxes would have been destined for the dump. we decided to do a little experimenting, and initially have had three workstations boot up from a test k12ltsp server. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
no comment on migration as yet, all systems on campus are predominantly
setup with MS windows (although this isnt a really a bad thing)
we're looking to introduce linux soon, we'll just put it out
there and watch how it turns heads as i'm sure it will. this is some
amazing stuff...
|
| Joseph Oneill
Mon Apr 14 00:07:38 2003 E-mail: jandals28@hotmail.com School Name: College of Micronesia - Pohnpei Campus |
| Location: Pohnpei - Micronesia School Info: K8~K12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: server, Dell Dimension PIII 450, 192Mb ram, workstations (for now) 1 Dell dim. PIII 450 64Mb, 1 Micron powerstation P100 with 16Mb ram and 1 Gateway P120 with 16Mb ram. |
| Outline the costs of installation: no $$$, machines already on site. the hdd's in the older pc's have started dying one by one, if we hadnt stumbled across k12ltsp, the boxes would have been destined for the dump. we decided to do a little experimenting, and initially have had three workstations boot up from a test k12ltsp server. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
no comment on migration as yet, all systems on campus are predominantly
setup with MS windows (although this isnt a really a bad thing).
we're looking to introduce linux soon, we'll just put it out
there and watch how it turns heads as i'm sure it will. this is some
amazing stuff...
|
| Betson Ifamilik
Mon Apr 14 16:17:39 2003 E-mail: btsn@comfsm.fm School Name: College of Micronesia - Pohnpei Campus |
| Location: Kolonia - Pohnpei Campus School Info: K12-LTSP |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server, Dell Dimension XPS T450 192MB Ram; workstations for now - 1 Gateway PII GP6- 350 16MB Ram and 1 Micron PI powerstation 64 MB Ram. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Theres no cost. We've been starting out with a test on this terminal server and it worth more than a test. Thanks to Joseph Oneill for introducing this cool stuff to my mind. We are still expermenting this server and its pretty cool. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Well, I wouldn't say nope! But, am sure that with
the introduction of this Terminal Server that we've been testing, at
this College; it'll expand in the days to come.
|
| Desmond Elliott
Tue Apr 29 22:40:19 2003 E-mail: desmond@dunhess.com.au School Name: The Heights School |
| Location: Modbury Heights, South Australia School Info: R-13 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Pentium 4 2.4Ghz Server fitted with 1.0GB of RAM and a 20GB IDE hard drive, curretly attached to 10 x 200Mhz PC's with 64MB of RAM, Intel 10/100 Lan cards with PXE and KTX 15" monitors. This operates as an email and wordprocessing room for year 12 and 13 students. After June we ill add another 24 PC's of the same configuration to extend LTS to our curriculum area. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The server cost us AU$1000 new and the LAN cards cost AU$68.00 each. All other equipment was in situ. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Using Mozilla and Open office at this point
with no restrictions of problems working in a $MS environment attaching
to a Novell 5.1 server where files are stored. Looking for a replacement
for $MS Publisher if anyone can lend any advice.
|
| Joerlei Pereira Lima
Fri May 2 17:04:09 2003 E-mail: joerlei2000@yahoo.com.br School Name: Escola Alicerce |
| Location: Campo Grande, MS - Brazil School Info: k-8, 380 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: AMD Athlon 1.3 Ghz, 768 MB ram, HD 40 Gb Typical use: Text processing, web browse, play some educational games (gcompris, potato guy, xboard), presentation, spreadsheet and e-mail. There are two schools: Unit I : Five terminals Pentium 100, 16mb ram, 300 mb hard drive Unit II: F Duron 850 Mhz, 128 mb Ram machines (it will be acquired 2 more machines soon). |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: About 1.250,00 $ on the first school, in the second unit we do not have a server, only workstations In the first school (Unit I), the cost was only with the server hardware and a box of Conectiva Linux, that has a built in terminal server. There was no installation cost, because it was made by me. That old machines (that was useless) gained new life with linux and now the kids can do their web searches with it. At the second school (Unit II), we used the same Linux box that we used at Unit I, so, there was no instalation cost, only hardware cost. About 700 $ per seat (5 Duron 850 Mhz, 128 mb Ram machines). With the saved money now we have a broadband access to internet (ADSL) in both schools. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: When I come here there was no running computer.
That time there was only the Unit I, and it was necessary to replace all
that old machines. No one could be used to web browse or text processing.
And replace all that machines would cost a lot of money, then I ask them
to buy a server (would be cheaper than replace every machine there) and
let me install linux on it. They agreed (I had made something like this
before, then they that it would work). It took me a entire week to get
that old machines up and runing (some hardware must be replaced) and two
more weeks to get the teachers trained.
Now there's no problem there. Last time that the principal call me
was to take a cup of coffee. :-)
In the winter's vacations (july in Brazil) I will upgrade the system
to Conectiva Linux 9 just because its advances in ease of use and
administration.
Oh, and we are working on a internal web page, based on php-nuke, then we
will have a forum, an encyclopedia (with the kids own researches) and a
place to post articles and local news.
|
| robert finkel
Tue May 20 14:33:54 2003 E-mail: info@futuredomain.net School Name: college prep international |
| Location: Montreal, Canada School Info: K-11, 150 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 1 ltsp server with 1gb ram,PIII 800, SCSI subsystem. 1 web proxy server and 1 firewall on a switched 100mb/sec network. Currently serving 20-30 client terminals. will be adding additional clients next year. Client terminals using legacy P100's dual bootable:pxe & win.. Typical uses are educational software, word processing, graphics(gimp) and filtered (squidguard) web access. |
| Outline the costs of installation: cost in CDN (US about 30%less). servers: $2500, switch,patch panel,network cards and cat5e cabling $2500. Existing client computers $nil. cost becomes progressively less as more client terminals are added. |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: K12ltsp has simplified
the installing and setup of the terminal server. If all the clients use
exactly the same hardware a minimal of configuration should be needed
otherwise modifing the lts.conf for different (legacy) hardware will be
needed; ie: video,network. With any server installion there will always
be
modifications to be done - support for ttf, templated desktops, services
ect .. Useability of linux apps compared with what most
people are using namely ms windows is more a shift in mindset. For
students the transition is quite easy. For teachers with limited computer
skills who have become acustomed to the MS environment the transition has
been more challanging. In the near future we will be implementing a
windows terminal server with access from the LTSP network using rdesktop.
Citrix is
|
| JJ3KK Wed Jun 18
23:38:46 2003 E-mail: jj3kk@yahoo.com School Name: Government Higher primary school |
| Location: Karnataka School Info: 5,6,7th 70 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Assembled), 256MB DDR 266MHz RAM, 40gig IDE HDD, Terminals: 5 ,Pentium I (100 to 133mhz) , 32mb ram, 14" Samsumg monitors (2 to 3 years old good quality) . Compex 8 port 10/100 Switch, Compex RTL 8139 network Card with Boot ROM.Normal use GCompris , Gedit, AbiWord,Calculator,Chess,tuxtype,tuxmath .GNome has been simplified.RedHat Start Menu removed. Only Gcompris,Gedit,AbiWord,CAlculator,Chess icons on Taskbar. Logout button at right corner of Taskbar. Only 2 icons on Desktop of Home directory and Trash can. After one year plan to use Openoffice |
| Outline the costs of installation: Rs.58,000/- == $1250/- Total costs for Hardware. |
| Comment on migration to
Linux based desktop applications: No migration. It is the first time
the Teachers and students touching the computer. Training for 15 days in
general computer hardware terminology , parts etc. Teachers have been
given general time table and order of teaching . The order of teaching is
GCompris (around 30 games) 2 months, Gedit 2 months, Abiword 2 months,
Calculator to solve big problems 2 months . Then using AbiWord students
will type their English lessons to improve their English. That will take
about 8 months.
The students are studying in the Medium of Kannada language. They will
improve their English language using computers.
|
| Wed Jun 18
23:40:21 2003 E-mail: jj3kk@yahoo.com School Name: Government Higher primary school |
| Location: Karnataka (100 KMs from Bangalore) ,India School Info: 5,6,7th 70 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Assembled), 256MB DDR 266MHz RAM, 40gig IDE HDD, Terminals: 5 ,Pentium I (100 to 133mhz) , 32mb ram, 14" Samsumg monitors (2 to 3 years old good quality) . Compex 8 port 10/100 Switch, Compex RTL 8139 network Card with Boot ROM.Normal use GCompris , Gedit, AbiWord,Calculator,Chess,tuxtype,tuxmath .GNome has been simplified.RedHat Start Menu removed. Only Gcompris,Gedit,AbiWord,CAlculator,Chess icons on Taskbar. Logout button at right corner of Taskbar. Only 2 icons on Desktop of Home directory and Trash can. After one year plan to use Openoffice |
| Outline the costs of installation: Rs.58,000/- == $1250/- Total costs for Hardware. |
| Comment on migration to
Linux based desktop applications: No migration. It is the first time
the Teachers and students touching the computer. Training for 15 days in
general computer hardware terminology , parts etc. Teachers have been
given general time table and order of teaching . The order of teaching is
GCompris (around 30 games) 2 months, Gedit 2 months, Abiword 2 months,
Calculator to solve big problems 2 months . Then using AbiWord students
will type their English lessons to improve their English. That will take
about 8 months.
The students are studying in the Medium of Kannada language. They will
improve their English language using computers.
|
| James Burton Mon
Jul 14 22:46:31 2003 E-mail: jtb71@charter.net School Name: Leeds Middle School |
| Location: Leeds, Alabama School Info: 5-7 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Details about our installation, including hardware specs, estimated costs, number of clients etc. can be found at the following URL: http://www.205lan.com/portfolio/lan/leeds.htm There are also some photos here as well. This installation is still in progress somewhat but should be completed and tweaked by the begining of the school year. |
| Outline the costs of installation: See above.... |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: The compatibility of Open Office with MS Office
applications was the selling point here. We'll see how the kids
adjust to Linux once school starts... I have a feeling they will pick it
right up!
|
| Robert Slater
Mon Aug 18 05:19:29 2003 E-mail: support@synapticserver.com School Name: Itrussu! |
| Location: Melbourne Australia School Info: 12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: This is not a school Network. We chose K12Ltsp because of the ease of set up and the active [and friendly] developers The Business that uses K12 is a roof truss manufacturer. They use new servers and new "terminals" The terminals have hard drives and Redhat 9 installed to them. These hard drives are not used unless the K12LTSP server fails. We chose to do this as an alternative to a second redundant Server in this small network. Gateway and backup file storage are provided by a Mitel SME server [www.e-smith.org] To explain the network setup we created a quick network diagram here www.synapticserver.com/ltsp.htm This Business uses all the usual office apps and wanted groupware [www.phpgroupware.org] we installed this on the SME server as we wanted to load it up a bit! |
| Outline the costs of installation: K12LTSP Server, p4 1Ghz, 1 Gb of RAM 2 x Serial ATA mirrored 80Gb hard drives. Decent thermaltake power supply and a alluminium case lian-li $1980.00 AU Terminals LCD 17" Monitors VIA Eden Mini ITX system board 20 Gb hard drive $1200 AU These were preloaded with Red Hat 9 and have onboard PXE network card. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Let the users at it.
This is where it gets interesting. Nobody had ANY experience of Linux. We
used KDE as the default Window Manager and waited at the end of the
phone for the avalanche of questions and problems....
Day one.. Nothing
Day two.. An eerie silence Now we are getting nervous..
OK we ring. How is it going?
People apparently went to workand barely noticed that they had a
different operating system. Nobody noticed that they were using a
terminal.
"Yeah right" you say. So did we.
The next day[day 3] we just had to go in!
NOt a single "default desktop. Everyone had been busy exploring and
changing their user environment. At the same time work was continuing.
Documents were being made,email sent,and projects planned.
The server has now been in use for 4 months. No down time and happy
users.
|
| Robert Slater
Mon Aug 18 05:20:11 2003 E-mail: support@synapticserver.com School Name: Itrussu! |
| Location: Melbourne Australia School Info: 12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: This is not a school Network. We chose K12Ltsp because of the ease of set up and the active [and friendly] developers The Business that uses K12 is a roof truss manufacturer. They use new servers and new "terminals" The terminals have hard drives and Redhat 9 installed to them. These hard drives are not used unless the K12LTSP server fails. We chose to do this as an alternative to a second redundant Server in this small network. Gateway and backup file storage are provided by a Mitel SME server [www.e-smith.org] To explain the network setup we created a quick network diagram here www.synapticserver.com/ltsp.htm This Business uses all the usual office apps and wanted groupware [www.phpgroupware.org] we installed this on the SME server as we wanted to load it up a bit! |
| Outline the costs of installation: K12LTSP Server, p4 1Ghz, 1 Gb of RAM 2 x Serial ATA mirrored 80Gb hard drives. Decent thermaltake power supply and a alluminium case lian-li $1980.00 AU Terminals LCD 17" Monitors VIA Eden Mini ITX system board 20 Gb hard drive $1200 AU These were preloaded with Red Hat 9 and have onboard PXE network card. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Let the users at it.
This is where it gets interesting. Nobody had ANY experience of Linux. We
used KDE as the default Window Manager and waited at the end of the
phone for the avalanche of questions and problems....
Day one.. Nothing
Day two.. An eerie silence Now we are getting nervous..
OK we ring. How is it going?
People apparently went to workand barely noticed that they had a
different operating system. Nobody noticed that they were using a
terminal.
"Yeah right" you say. So did we.
The next day[day 3] we just had to go in!
NOt a single "default desktop. Everyone had been busy exploring and
changing their user environment. At the same time work was continuing.
Documents were being made,email sent,and projects planned.
The server has now been in use for 4 months. No down time and happy
users.
|
| Luis Montes Tue
Aug 26 17:36:36 2003 E-mail: monteslu at cox dot net School Name: Queen Of Peace Parochial School |
| Location: Mesa, AZ School Info: K-8, 220 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: The server is a P4 2.66 GHZ 3Gigs RAM, 40Gig drive plus two 60Gigs in a raid mirror for /home. Currently we have 20 terminals in the lab, but we are adding another 30 or so spread out through the classrooms. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The server was a little over a thousand USD in parts. The terminals are all donated pentium 90-233s. We did spend a few bucks on NICs and boot roms from disklessworkstations.com and we intend to replace any boot floppies with bootable NICs. We also spent 5 or 6 bucks a piece on 20 new optical/ scroll wheel mice from Fry's electronics. We found some cheap 3com 10/100 switches on ebay. Most of the wiring and labor was done by volunteers. We are so far under budget that we are thinking about buying an overhead projector for the lab to make the teacher's jobs a little easier. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: So far everything is running smoothly. I'm using
Ice Window Manager with an XP theme to give the schoolkids some
familiarity with thier new OS.
They've jumped right into OpenOffice and Mozilla with no problems
whatsoever. I'm hoping that this school will be a model of how
computer labs should be set up in my area.
|
| Guy Lessard Fri
Sep 12 06:56:06 2003 E-mail: glessard@coll-outao.qc.ca School Name: College de l'Outaouais |
| Location: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada School Info: Post high-school, 40 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: One K12LTSP V3.1.1 server with 512 MB ram, PIII 800MHz, IDE subsystem, 100 Mb/s switched network inside a Netware network. Currently serving 16 client terminals using legacy P100/64MB. All Clients use the same video (ATI), NIC (Intel Pro100B) and boot off a hidden floppy in the case. Typical use: OpenOffice spreadsheet, Mozilla and Moodle |
| Outline the costs of installation: Cost in CDN (U.S. about 30% less), Server about 2000$ Switch, path, cables, installation: 1000$ Client computers: Completely recycled, 0$ |
| Comment
on migration to Linux based desktop applications: The 16 terminals
are used by the first year students of a three year electronics course
(post high-school) and the students had very little adaptation to open-
source apps. They are accessing à Moodle/Linux server through the web for
there lab assignments and use the spreadsheet to calculate and graph
there work. When the work is done, they store there files to the Netware
server.
I'm planning on using LDAP/NDS authentication so as to alleviate the
dual authentication (once on K12LTSP and then on Netware).
Thanks for such a great distro.
|
| Steve Towson Wed
Sep 24 07:51:47 2003 E-mail: towsons@marist.ac.jp School Name: Marist Brothers International School |
| Location: Kobe, Japan School Info: Pre-K to 12: 250+ |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: File + Authentication Server for whole school: OS: Redhat 9.0 K12OS Pentium 4 2.4c CPU 2GB DDR RAM 2 x SATA HDDs (1 for the system, 1 for /home) Authenticates Linux users through NIS (master server) Authenticates Windows users through SMB PDC for school's W2K workstations mounts /home through NFS for Linux users and through SMB to Windows users GB NIC 3 x Linux Terminal Servers: OS: Redhat 9.0 K12OS Authentication through NIS mounts /home through NFS HDD: 1 x SATA CPU: Pentium 4 2.4c RAM: 2GB NICS: 1 x GB NIC (eth1), 1 x 100 NIC (eth0) Terminals: 40+ Compaq Deskpros CPU: Pentium I 266 RAM: 32MB - 64MB HDD: Yes, but starting to fail due to age FDD and CD-ROM 10/100 tlan NIC IBM Crapmeisters CPU: Pentium I RAM: 32MB HDD: Yes CD-ROM, FDD 10/100 3com NIC Terminals boot through floppy but I am in the process of creating boot CDs using PXES - want to access the FDDs using MToolsFM and still be able to boot the terminal should that be required. On the look out for other crapmeisters to assimilate into our school. Typical use: OpenOffice for office apps Mozilla (Opera donated 100 licences for their linux browser but I haven't implemented it yet) BlueJ Java programming for AP Computer Science course Desktop publishing using Scribus and the GIMP (school yearbook + newspaper) |
| Outline the costs of installation: Original situation: Server - Compaq Proliant running Win NT but starting to lose it (you may remember that this machine was cloned and brought back to life in Jurassic Park) due to dud HDDs, and a low speed network based on hubs and a crappy old Cisco router that was used by the Soviet space program back in the '70s. Clients - some modern W2K machines, some borderline W2K machines and two labs with Win95 crapmeisters. Process: Annual budget: 1 000 000 Yen = USD 10 000 (Principal's plan: buy 10 new PCs every year and gradually retire the old ones) Instead ripped the guts out of four ATX generic boxes, installed nice Gigabyte brand motherboards and fitted them out with above hw; replaced all hubs with 10/100 switches; use a GB switch to connect the file server, the cable modem, the terminal servers and the various school switches together; Cost - half of budget Unrelated to K12OS - other half spent linking another school building to the original and fixing up the faulty ethernet cabling with some cash to spare! Terminals were already on site and did not require any refurbishment - the compaqs were a pain due to the alterations Compaq carried out on the S3 Virge GX graphic cards - required a special driver for use with linux. I don't like the compaqs very much as their low-power VGA cards limit the speed of display. Desktop environment is a centrally maintained xfce4 panel and desktop (it looks like the OSX panel so the kids were confused at first - they had no idea what OS they were using)- it's so fast and you can limit the visible applications easily. Am thinking of moving to Ximian Desktop as it is more attractive. Tried KDE but sometimes noticed lag due to video refresh issues. When everyone is working hard and using multiple apps (open office + web), the terminal servers still have half their RAM free, and the CPU runs at around 8% - I plan to add more terminals if I can find more old PCs as I think I am under-utilizing the existing servers. Future: I'd like to move away from Windows all together as I spend as much time on the 10 W2K machines as I do the entire linux network. Central management as a result of Linux means that I can concentrate on teaching! Plan to host our own web and mail next school year too, and spend our budget on building cheap thin clients, replacing faulty monitors, and buying classroom computer projectors. Want to put terminals in every class and on every teacher's desk! |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Originally tried Star Office 6 as it was free for us, but found some
problems when students copied pictures from Mozilla into Star Writer -
the desktop froze, logging out and then back in resulted in an unusable
star office installation for that user - requiring deletion of their home
folder. Open Office starts a little slower, but seems a little sturdier
in this regard.
They like skinning Mozilla and like the download manager and the tabbed
browsing.
Java was a pain to get running with Redhat - if you do an Everything
install you get this strange jre which you can't remove and replace
with sun's latest. Had trouble with this for a long time as the
included jre (while running web applets faster than the sun version) did
not allow the students to run their Java programming IDE BlueJ. The kids
like the fact that they can use the same sofware at home and at school
but on different OSs.
Students were very impressed with the increase in speed due to the
terminal server and the improved network infrastructure - without this I
am sure they would have revolted - they were so used to windows. But it
takes about 3 mins for a kid to find their way around an xfce4 desktop so
there isn't much of a learning curve.
|
| Jim Christiansen
Tue Nov 11 11:15:46 2003 E-mail: jim@linux.ca School Name: Prince Charles Secondary School |
| Location: Creston, BC School Info: 8-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We are using an MSI dual P3 1ghz with 2 gigs unbuffered sdram. Two 40 gig ide hds and one common rlt8139 nic. It servers 31 AMD 350 clients with 64 megs each. It does NIS for 70 other Linux boxes with nfs'ed homes. This really rocks. Our cost savings have been huge. Students use AbiWord or StarOffice6.0, Scribus, and Mozilla. A total install from the iso cds with IceWm stripped down to save memory has resulted in a system that runs beautifully. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Minimal (almost nothing) compared Microsoft. AND the students LOVE the new system. How much would you pay for a MS$$ based web proxy/firewall that nats, filters html, authenticates users and manages printing (better than MS). Could you afford to purchase multiple licenses to spread the load to two or three servers? How much would you pay for 100 seats of MS Office?? Our installation is a primo system that cost us the purchase cost of a dozen blank cds. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Oh course I had my worries about removing a
costly system that required constant upgrading and maintenance... This
was a little stressful BUT everything works. Student logons are a
breeze. They never loose their work anymore having to navigate to shared
or mapped drives. Maintenance is fast as well becuase one change on the
LTSP server is all that is needed. The K12LTSP community is great.
Every school district should wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee.
|
| Randy Swift Mon
Dec 1 07:09:48 2003 E-mail: swift@msad52.k12.me.us School Name: Leavitt Area High School |
| Location: Turner, Maine School Info: 9-12, 800 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: SERVER: dual xeon 2.8ghz processors, 3 73.4gb hot swappable scsi hard drives, 4gb DDR ram, 2 10/100/1000 ethernet cards, Intel raid controller. WORKSTATIONS: various desktops stripped out for terminals. SWITCHES: 2 24 port 10/100 +2 10/100/1000 switches |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server was about $5,000. Workstations around $35.00 for ethernet cards. The switches were 250.00 each. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
I have two labs (one with 24 terminals and the other with 12) set up
using k12ltsp. This was my first experience ever with Linux and I was
surprised at how easy it was to set this up. The students have picked
things up very easily and have not complained at all about the changed.
Teachers are a little skeptical but are slowly coming around. The labs
have been running for three months now with absolutely no problems.
|
| Rich McCue Mon
Feb 16 16:34:27 2004 E-mail: rmccue@law.uvic.ca School Name: University of Victoria Faculty of Law |
| Location: Victoria, BC School Info: Law Clinic Program, 300 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: Dell Poweredge 1600, 2Gb of Ram, 3 10K SCSI Hard Drives. 18 Clients, PII 300's. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server $3000, Clients $0 (we removed Windows NT from existing workstations). We saved over $20,000 on the project. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Most difficult part of the migration was formatting problems in complex
Word Documents. Cost savings was the primary motivator behind this
project.
|
| Dennis Daniels
Mon Feb 16 17:16:42 2004 E-mail: ddaniels@magic.fr School Name: San DImas High School |
| Location: California School Info: 9-12, 1400 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Dual Athlon 1600, 30+ terminals all donated PIs and PIIs. Running 3.1.x Tried Fedora but lost half our monitors and didn't want to hand configure all of the MAC addresses to get them working again. Switched back to 3.1.x. I'm an English teacher and with the help of a buddy from the local LUG we hammered the network together over a couple of months. We're still adding terminals as I still have space in my room to put them. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Total out of pocket? Around $700, most of it for RAM and cables. I should have been more actively recruiting donations earlier on, as most of my hardware and cabling needs have been recently met with generous donations from the community. ALL of the terminals and monitors, including the server, have come from the community. Contact your local Rotary, BBB, Lions, and etc., they have machines aplenty in their back offices that need a new home as terminals in your school! |
| Comment on migration to
Linux based desktop applications: Students don't really show much
resistance to the interface. Though some things don't work like they are
supposed to... running KDE has been a big issue... I'm dumping KDE for
iceWM... the Xserver was just too starved for RAM and I was losing
terminals like crazy. You have no idea what that means when your whole
lesson plan is based on access to the network and to the internet. I've
converted maybe twenty users to mozilla :) and I've given about 25 copies
of Knoppix to interested students.
|
| damien vuillet
Tue Apr 6 03:35:54 2004 E-mail: lpadumorvan@free.fr School Name: Lpa du Morvan |
| Location: France School Info: 400 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 25 TX et un serveur bi pro athlon 2000xp+ |
| Outline the costs of installation: seulement le serveur 1200 € les stations sont des pc réformés P1 133,150 et 200 Mhz, sans disque dur (DD HS ou debranchés) et 32 Mo de Ram |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: avec rdestop
|
| brendan martin
Tue Apr 27 02:27:29 2004 E-mail: webmaster.oms@montessori.no School Name: oslo montessoriskole |
| Location: oslo, norway School Info: 5years-16years |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 1 dell poweredge 1600sc, dual 2.8 processor, 3GB ram, 120gb hdisk (no terminals would be running local apps so everything was run from server). Now have 60 terminals running on the server, about 40 at once would be daily usage, still havent seen any signs of slowness because of server. Terminals run evolution for mail, openoffice, mozilla firebird, opera, amsn, gimp, and a few other apps plus several educational programs. |
| Outline the costs of installation: server was expensive, terminals we get mostly free from companies, universities throwing away old machines. They remove the hard disks and we get the machines. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Easy for kids, more difficult for teachers to
accept migration :-)
|
| Dale Harkness
Fri Jun 18 08:18:54 2004 E-mail: dharkness@nsd2.com School Name: Nippersink District 2 |
| Location: Richmond, IL School Info: K-8, 1600 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: For our servers we chose HP ML380 Rack Mount Servers, with a Xeon 2.8 GHz (expandable to 2 processors), 1.5 GB of DDR RAM (expandable to 12 GB), a 72 GB SCSI HD, Dual Gigabit NIC, and Dual Power supplies; currently we have 3 servers, with each server doing the work for 30 terminals (total of 90 machines), we use Citrix software to run most of our applications so we didn't have to sacrifice some of our apps we wanted to keep, so typical use is for internet, citrix (currently running 30-40 apps per student), and printing. Our terminals are just diskless work stations with Intel Pro 100 PXE bootable network cards in them. Seem to be working very well for us. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Servers: 3 HP servers @ about $2000 each ($6000 total), terminals costed $30 per machine for the bootable network cards for 70 of our 90 machines, some already had bootable cards in them ($30 X 70 machines = $2100 for cards). These have been our only costs: Total $8100 |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: I have been a user of Linux for a few years
now. The choice to move to Linux stemmed based on 1. cost 2. licensing
3. compatability. Since we use Citrix (and have been for a few years
now) we did not really have to worry about compatability so much. We are
very progressive here, and wish to offer only the best to our students
and staff without breaking our bank. Like many districts, we cannot
afford the large costs associated with Microsoft. Linux can provide for
us what we need at a cost we can swallow. We are running LTSP in our
labs for 90 machines, and plan to use Fedora to run the rest of our
clients OS. When we are finished, Linux will be dominating about 80% of
our machines here.
|
| Norm Hanna Sun
Sep 19 10:58:11 2004 E-mail: norm@xrds.nl School Name: Crossroads International Church - Amsterdam |
| Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands School Info: not applicable - church office |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Load balanced system, 4 servers; one file server, one backup server, and two terminal servers. All user administration is done on the file server using webmin (coordinates unix and samba passwords); scripts distribute user and group changes to the other servers. The file server also hosts internal mail and scheduling services using third party package desknow. The window manager is xfce, reducing requirements on server and simplifying the employee interface. Remote access from home is available using ssh and vnc. Remote support for employees is possible using x0rfbserver on the client workstation and vnc on the support workstation. Incremental backups are done using rdiff-backup to removable harddrive on backup server daily. The removable hardrives are rotated between onsite and offsite locations. There are currently 20 workstations distributed between the terminal servers. The workstations are re-cycled workstations without harddrives. Scripts on the dhcp server distribute workstation connections between the two terminal servers. File Server: 2G celeron,ICH5 Gigabit ethernet on motherboard, 512mb, 40G ide boot drive, 4x36G SCSI software raid nfs mount for /home. Home is also available via Samba under \\server\homes share. Backup Server: 2G celeron, ICH5 Gigabit ethernet on motherboard, 256mb, 40G ide boot drive, (3) removable 160G ide harddrives for backups using rdiff-backup. two identical terminal servers: 3.0G 800 FSB P4, ICH5 Gigabit ethernet on motherboard, 2G memory, 40G ide boot drive, nfs mount /home from file server. Church employees use openoffice, firefox, and the desknow group scheduling package to organise church events. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Prices in euros: Workstations - re-cycled, only requiring new mice - everyone upgraded to scroll mice - euro 300 File server: 1650 euro backup server: 650 euro Terminal servers: 2x650 = 1300 euro Gigabit switch and KVM switchbox = 300 euro |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: 1). There is limited onsite support; support comes from
volunteers using remote access via ssh and VNC.
2). Users are easily able to customise their desktop.
3). Openoffice Impress has a steep learning curve.
4). There has been some difficulty migrating existing word documents
which have complex formatting.
5). Recommend that the employees request the user to re-send complex
documents as text and then have employee re-apply formatting using open
office.
|
| Norbert A. Bedoucha Sun
Sep 19 10:58:11 2004 E-mail: bedoucha@xtlabs.org School Name: Riverdale High School |
| Location: Pierrefonds, Quebec School Info: K-7-11, 1000 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: The project started with a P-IV 2.2GHz & 1.5GB memory with 20 P-I 75 - 166 Mhz workstations. The lab is used as both a resource and teaching tool for the students in both French & English |
| Outline the costs of installation: Since this was a joint project between the school, reBoot Montreal & XTlabs Corp. costing is difficult to assess. If we look only at the hardware then there's a value of about $3,000. However there was a significant amount of work done in testing different types of servers, everything from intel to sparc and workstations from clones, hp, compaq, dell, ibm, gateway, proprietary school desktops and more. Hence the actual cost may seem high due to the work done but it was well worth every penny. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Much to our surprise the migration from M$ to
Linux took about 3 minutes ! That's exactly how long it took some of the
students to ask how they could "hack" into the OS.
For the teachers about a month and thats where the real difference
occurs, since the teachers could now have a better control on what the
kids do (more important what they CAN'T do) there has been an increase of
1000% of teachers using the Linux lab, whereas the M$ labs are empty.
|
| Herald D'Sa Wed
Nov 24 14:48:30 2004 E-mail: jj3kk@yahoo.com School Name: Vande Mataram Bala Vatika High School |
| Location: Hyderabad,India School Info: K-10, 600 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz, 256MB DDR RAM, Client:1)Pentium 1,32MB RAM, 2)AMD AThLON 1600,128mb ram. 8-port Compex 100Mbps Switch |
| Outline the costs of installation: Only the cost of Switch and Network Cards = Rs.1,800/- (US $40.00). Other Hardware was existing before. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Vande Mataram High School may be the First school to use GNU/Linux in the
State of Andhra Pradesh of India. No Migration from proprietory platform
was involved since the Windows OS was only used for office purpose
before. The school chidren and teachers are using the computers for the
first time. K12LTSP usage started in the month June,2004.Teachers were
given around 20 hours of basic training by using GCompris,tuxpaint,gedit
etc. A small introductory material on GNU/Linux and Computers for
children available at http://linuxschools.tripod.com has been used to
teach the Theory and basic practicals. The complete implementation
details are available at http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/linux_schools/
.
Only Students from 5th Class to 10th class are being given the computers
eventhough classes from Kindergarden to 10th class are present. Focus of
the K12LTSP usage is to teach and use the computers to complement the
existing subjects and to enhance the overall learning process.The school
does not want to burden the students with Computer Science and
Programming syllabus, but wants the students to get proficient in using
computers and to use Computers as an interactive learning tool for
Mathematics,Science,English etc. If anybody wants to test GNU/Linux or
K12LTSP in Hyderabad can join the above mentioned linux users group for
help.
|
| Jeff Boyd Wed
Dec 29 09:30:20 2004 E-mail: jboyd@almaheihts.org School Name: Alma Heights Christian Academy |
| Location: Pacifica, CA School Info: K-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server--2.4 GHz Zeon, 1GB Ram, etc. # of teminals--12 vaious makes and models of Pentium II 200's with 3Com PXE network cards (3902-C520) which we bought in a 25-pack from amazon.com. We run our lab with typing and computer classes for 5-8. The lab also functions as a full service research classroom for use with our high school curriculum. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server: $1,500 Terminals: 12 Salvaged from previous iteration of lab--$25 each for RAM upgrades, total $300. One 24 port 10/100 Switches: $100 each, total $100. 25 3Com Network Cards: 25-pack, $26.71 each, total $320.62 Total cost--$2,220.62 |
| Comment on migration to Linux
based desktop applications: Initially, I thought our big hurdle would
be migration and training. This turned out to not to be the case.
Migration was fairly simple, our registrar created a list of usernames
and passwords in the form of a text file from our student rolls. After a
little tweaking, he then imported it via the Webmin users module. As far
as training, the students were quickly introduced to the operating system
and available software by our able technology coordinator and computer
teacher; he was excited enough about the savings in hardware and
administration that he was quite motivated to learn how to navigate in
gnome himself. The high school classes that use the lab for research
mainly use Firefox--works essentially like any other browser they have
used--and any of the word/text processors in gnome. Since we are running
Openwebmail on the server, they can email themselves with information or
use Webdisk to save text files they have created. It is all working
pretty smoothly. By the way, to start with we were using an old machine
(1.5GHz Pentium with 256 RAM) for the LTSP server. It was a dog. Our 12
terminals often hung up when students tried to open an application at the
same time--something that often occurs in a lab teaching. Of course the
faster processor is nice, but I have a feeling that the 1GB of RAM
offered the biggest improvement.
|
| Robert Pogson
Mon Jan 3 09:44:30 2005 E-mail: robert.pogson@gmail.com School Name: ?Ehtseo Ayha School |
| Location: Deline, NT, Canada School Info: K-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: AMD64 3000 S939 processor with MSI K8T NEO2-F motherboard 1.5gB RAM with gigabit NIC and second PCI 10/100 NIC. The switch is a DLINK DES-1026G with two gb/s ports and the rest 10/100. This is to replace an older server that has hardware problems. Will switch to the new one and use dual servers when the old one is fixed. Have been using 512 mB RAM which is marginal for 8 clients. Average uptime of two weeks before graceful shutdown from disk failure. Using RAID 1 on two 60 gB drives. Switching to RAID 1 on two 200 gB drives. The old drives have seen three years of heavy use. The new mobo cannot use 3 modules of RAM so I will use the odd one to upgrade the old server while the new on is being tested and content added. When we see the performance of both machines, we may put all the RAM on the new machine. This installation serves two high school classrooms with four clients in each. Running SQUID/DansGuardian proxy server and apache/MySQL/PHP. Have tried Debian/Mandrake/KNOPPIX etc. They all can work with LTSP, but K12LTSP is smoothest. I used 3.1.1 last year with great satisfaction. 4.2 is great! |
| Outline the costs of installation: About $1000 Canadian for the server and $190 for the switch bought on a Boxing Week special. The mobo was $128. The 200gB hard drives were about $125 each. 512 mB RAM X 3 at $78 added to our existing 512 mB. I spent a few dollars on connectors and made up cables from salvaged pieces of Cat5 from a dissassembled lab. The downward trend in prices for RAM and disk made waiting for the Boxing Day sale difficult. We saved 20% by waiting and got a server easily capable of double the work of the old one. The 64 bit mobo has dual channel RAM and full speed access to other drives and gigabit NIC simultaneously. The NICs on the PCI bus and the drives are direct to the south bridge which has 512 MB/s bandwidth to the processor/RAM. We use software RAID 1 to allow multiple simultaneous file access. When we go to four drives we will be able to access four files at once and use up most of the bandwidth of the mobo. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Students had used the clients the year before with Lose98 and greatly
appreciated the improved performance. 466MHz 64 mB whimped with Lose98
but was great as a client on a 100 mb/s link. Using Darkstat I observed
the machines boot up and run. Network traffic from server to clients is
max at boot up (kernel image goes over) and drops to a low level. Have
used bootloader on floppy, hard drive and CDROM, and connection via $X -
query serverip from a boot script with equal satisfaction. It is
wonderful to have choices. Have located Canadian supplier of boot ROMs
and will give that a try for even faster booting.
The new server is clearly overpowered for the classroom use with a fwe
percent of CPU needed per client, but we expect to expand the network to
the library and other classrooms with some Computers for School
additions.
One of the most powerful features of our system is a local search engine,
Swish-e, which can index all our local web content and all the text of
11000 books from Gutneberg.org. The RAM is needed to sort all that. We
may use MySQL full text searching in the future, but Swish-e works well
enough. The big disks are needed to store all this web content, and the
web-cache of squid. We have a very modest ISP, so it is great that the
cache feeds subsequent requests to the server locally.
Students take 30 minutes to become familiar with
browser/desktop/OpenOffice/Gimp combination. Some of our more artistic
students produce great work with digital camera/Gimp/OpenOffice. The pure
maths students use geg graphing. All maths students find the spreadsheets
useful.
Overall it has been a great experience. The students are happy. I am
happy. I have not had to do much work with the system except to acquire
and produce content which is a lot more stimulating than debugging/re-
installing that other OS, to say nothing of the savings. Last year, my
school division spent $300000 on new PCs and that other OS. If they had
used K12LTSP, I estimate they could have bought the hardware only for
less than half that much. This project will be a model for the other
schools in my division to get off the treadmill of that other OS. In two
weeks I will show off the new server to the other computer teachers in
the division, and give them hands-on experience installing and
configuring servers and clients. The big disks will have several spare
partitions for the installation practice.
|
| Greg Perry Fri
Jan 28 08:02:02 2005 E-mail: greg.perry@challengertafe.wa.edu.au School Name: Challenger College of Technical And Further Education |
| Location: Mandurah, Western Australia School Info: Vocational, 400 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: A small group of my Certificate IV IT students installed a "proof of concept" site as an alternative upgrade solution to one of our aging computing labs in late 2004. We configured the terminal server on a P4-HT 2.6GHz machine (Intel 845 chipset) with 2GB RAM and a 40GB HD. The TS was supported by a smaller back-end processing node using the openMosix extensions we compiled into our custom kernels. The cluster powered 16 P3 (Intel 815 chipset) clients using PXE boot over a switched 100MB LAN. The system/application performance and fast boot times were very impressive (compared to the existing Novell/MS setup). I'm convinced that the LTSP has great potential to provide cost effective computing, as well as reducing the alarming level of environmental waste by recycling older machines. Sadly however, it seems we are vendor-locked in our infrastructure solutions at the moment. The SOE determined by our state educational authority does not extend to open source technologies as yet. PLEASE HELP ME... I'm applying for a fellowship grant to fund researching the application and viability of adopting open source technologies for use in our state education system. While I'm fairly comfortable with the technical aspects of deploying Linux-based solutions, I am looking for educational facilities who have already done this (outside of Australia), and would be willing to allow me to visit. I see the main battle in any open source adoption by our education system would be a political one. As such, I am keenly interested to document case studies on others that have deployed and benefited by the migration away from commercial offerings. I anticipate travel (to anywhere in the world) sometime after September 1, 2005 if I'm successful in my fellowship application. Please email me at greg.perry@challengertafe.wa.edu.au if you would be interested in having a visitor for a few days. Thank you Greg Perry, Lecturer - Information Technology Challenger TAFE, Peel Campus Western Australia |
| Outline the costs of installation: Essentially free - we had the infrastructre already in place. It was simply just a matter of installing and configuring the software. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
This is an area that I'm particularly interested in. Please refer to
my comments above, and email me if you're keen for a visitor later in
the year.
|
| Ryan Bregler Thu
Mar 3 20:47:36 2005 E-mail: ryan.bregler@leusd.k12.ca.us School Name: Temescal Canyon High School |
| Location: Corona California School Info: 9-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server: P4 2.8 HT processor 1 meg L2 cashe, 2 gigs of ram, gigabit backbone 100 megabit to clients Clients: 133 mhz P1, 32 megs of simm ram, video card, 3com $ RealTeck 8193 Nic cards, boots from Floppy (In process of elimates the need of floppies and teacher hassle. Server is currently running 22 clients and we are trying to hit 32. 22 clients run VERY well on these servers |
| Outline the costs of installation: Cost?: 1,500 per server + 500 for ram per server totaly $2,000 per server. $75 per switch Clients: Nothing. They are old computers school district had bought 10 years ago and have servered their usage as windows clients. Just about everything gutted. Finding a way to allow kinds to use floppies on clients by having the server mount then on client boot and user login. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Good for surfing the web, typing documents, and for
those who know linux can get a good grip on it. Also it will allow others
to get some hands on experence on a new OS that might be more popular in
the future.
|
| Marty Roberson
Sun Apr 3 16:37:21 2005 E-mail: mroberson@globaltekit.com School Name: Prevailing Baptist Church |
| Location: Detroit, MI. School Info: K-12, 50 (not concurrently) |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We have a very basic computer lab setup. Most of the users simply surf the web and use word processing software. Seven client machines, all ranging from Pentium I with 1mb graphics cards. Our K12LTSP server(512MB RAM) has an Intel Celeron (333Mhz CPU). We've installed squid proxy and run sshd. |
| Outline the costs of installation: $500 for server, thin client costs were negligible. We only had to pay for the NICs, which special prefabbed EEPROM NICs. We purchased them from http://disklessworkstations.com |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications: Flawless. We simply
installed the NICs in the client machine and booted the K12LTSP server.
One client failed to boot, and it was due to an improperly seated NIC.
|
| Marty Wed May
4 14:13:45 2005 E-mail: mroberson@globaltekit.com School Name: Prevailing Community Development Corporation |
| Location: Detroit, MI. School Info: K-12 + |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: I selected Fedora Core 3 version of K12LTSP as it is the most straight forward OS that is user friendly for the newbie and expert alike. Most of the process has been automated for you especially if you already know the type of hardware that your server has so that you when asked you can select the correct hardware types during the configuration portion of the install process. I burned all 4 ISO's using 8x write speed to ensure all information was written properly. Afterwards, set the bios to boot from CDrom and inserted Disk 1.and the process of installing was off and running. Keep in mind that I used a Raid 1 Configuration so you must be knowledgeable in this area as it is a bit tricky to implement the first time that you perform it. Once the install recognized my to SATA's I basically performed a manual configuration of the partition so that I could set the Raid 1 up. Basically, for Raid 1, both hdd's must have identical partions: Drive 1- 80 GB / = 50 GB /home = 20 GB /SWAP = 4 GB un-used = 6 GB Drive 2- 80 GB / = 50GB (Raid) /home = 20GB (Raid) /SWAP = 4 GB (Raid) un-used = 6 GB afterwards, you must select the raid function while you are in the hdd partion process this will finalize the process for you. Please read up on this or email me for more detailed information concerning this subject. upon completion finalize the partioning scheme and press ok. once this is done you will are now able to select what type of server you want to build. by default LTSP SERVER is selected you must go with this or you will have to re-install. if you need more applicaiton that what is generally provided you will have to also select customize application selection which is on the same page as the type of server software you want to isntall. I added a few extra admin tools as I have an intermediat/power user experience with Linux. Regardless it is important to make sure to select custome the application you want to install as you will need to to ensure you have installed all of the administrative tools as well as file server capabilities if you will be interfacing with an existing network. Once you have chosen you apps to install, just sit back and wait for the prompt which will tell you to add the next cd. I also mentioned in my list of supplies that I used two 1 Gig NICs and a switch with a WAN input that accepts 1Gig. The reason for this is to allow the network throughput to run extremely fast without bottle necking the pipeline. If the pipeline is bottle necked you thin clients will lockup or freeze momentarily. As a result, the clients will not be very happy. The speed is unbelievable. One would think that all of the client machines are brand new with at least 1/2 Gig of ram. During the install process the installer will notice that you have two NICs and will automatically assign STATIC IP address to for upto 100 clients (192.168.0.1-254) this is the default setting for the internal NIC as it is the gateway for the clients to access the server. The second NIC is the external or public side NIC and it must be set to DHCP so that your cable modem or router can automatically setup a dynamic IP address. After you done installing all of the apps and you finally reboot, you can log in. as the user name you selected during the install process. NEVER SIGN IN AS ROOT. if you do make sure you now what you are doing or ELSE. The final task is to assign each user (ws001-ws100) a passwd to login to the system. Now all you have left to do is to prep your thin clients. Remove the HDD's, Floppy's & CDrom's as they are not needed. All you need is a Bootable NIC, 128 MB of ram or greater, 1 MB video card, mouse & KB. Assemble, connect to the switch or hub and turn in on. Oh Yea, select F2 or Delete and change the BIOS settings to indicate none for hard drive, none for floppy. If you dont do this you will always get prompted to hit F1 to continue or F2 for setup. You now have a thin clinet network. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Total cost of the project: $900.00 Built a midgrade server with the following: Gigabyte K8 Neo Mother board AMD 2.8 Ghz process 1.5 GB Ram PC2700 Nvidia Geforce 256 MB video Dual 80 Gig SATA HDD's Dual 1 Gig NIC (TWO DIFFERENT MAKE/MODELS) 15 Bootable NICs bought from Diskless workstation Raid 1 DVD-RW Mouse & Keyboard 1 20 port swicth or hub "that has at least 1 port that has 1 Gig input for the internal NIC on the server" See K12ltsp network config page for wiring setup. |
| Comment on migration to
Linux based desktop applications: No migaration was necessary for me
as open office is directly compatible with microsoft office, lotus,
works, corel ect....
|
| Paul VanGundy
Wed Jun 8 07:38:39 2005 E-mail: pvangundy@gmail.com School Name: Epping Community Church |
| Location: Epping, New Hampshire School Info: K-12 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: 1 Server: P333, 256MB RAM and 5 Terminals: P133, 32-96MB RAM. Both server and terminals were donated. Installation of the K12LTSP server was extremely easy. The only difficulty I ran into was with the terminals. Since the terminals are fairly old, I had to get floppy disk boot rom images (http://rom-o-matic.net/) for the NIC cards installed because they don't support the PXE or Bootp protocols. After I put in the floppy disk and booted up everything worked perfectly! Not only do I love the K12LTSP server but so do the church members as it has cost them nothing out of pocket. Besides being free, it's also great to know that the only place I have to do updates is the server! Granted, if there are hardware issues on the terminals work will have to be done, but all software installations and updates will be done on the server only. Another great factor is that we don't have to deal with licensing like we would have done if we had chosen a Microsoft route. We are going to upgrade our server because it is a little slow because of the lack of power and definately lack of RAM. K12LTSP is awesome. That's our story. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Free. Nothing out of pocket. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Extremely easy. If you are thinking of migrating or installing K12LTSP
and would like to contact me with questions or concerns my email address
is: pvangundy@gmail.com
|
| Graham Banks Sat
Jul 23 19:08:32 2005 E-mail: gbanks@internode.on.net School Name: Salem Community House Project |
| Location: Brisbane Australia School Info: |
| Describe your K12- LTSP installation: Server PIII700 512Mb RAM 40Gb HDD, 5x Celeron400 Mhz 64Mb RAM LTSP 4.2.1 - typical use OpenOffice suite, educatinalprograms and some games. Used for basic computer skills course for people with a mild intellectual disability. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The monitors, keyboards and mice were donated and the rest of the hardware cost AU$350. Licensing fees=ZERO |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: No problems with users quickly finding their
way around the system - Advantage of minimal system administration and
stability, can be expanded with the addition of more clients at minimal
expense.
|
| Graham Banks Sat
Jul 23 19:09:03 2005 E-mail: gbanks@internode.on.net School Name: Salem Community House Project |
| Location: Brisbane Australia School Info: |
| Describe your K12- LTSP installation: Server PIII700 512Mb RAM 40Gb HDD, 5x Celeron400 Mhz 64Mb RAM LTSP 4.2.1 - typical use OpenOffice suite, educatinal programs and some games. Used for basic computer skills course for people with a mild intellectual disability. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The monitors, keyboards and mice were donated and the rest of the hardware cost AU$350. Licensing fees=ZERO |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
No problems with users quickly finding their way around the system -
Advantage of minimal system administration and stability, can be expanded
with the addition of more clients at minimal expense.
|
| Graham Banks Sat
Jul 23 19:12:56 2005 E-mail: gbanks@internode.on.net School Name: Salem Community House Project |
| Location: Brisbane Australia School Info: |
| Describe your K12- LTSP installation: Server PIII700 512Mb RAM 40Gb HDD, 5x Celeron400 Mhz 64Mb RAM LTSP 4.2.1 - typical use OpenOffice suite, educatinal programs and some games. Used for basic computer skills course for people with a mild intellectual disability. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The monitors, keyboards and mice were donated and the rest of the hardware cost AU$350. Licensing fees=ZERO |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
No problems with users quickly finding their way around the system -
Advantage of minimal system administration and stability, can be expanded
with the addition of more clients at minimal expense.
|
| Rico Giove Wed
Jan 25 07:42:39 2006 E-mail: computoman@yahoo.com School Name: DJI |
| Location: Houston Texas School Info: College tutoring with 5 students |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We are using a homebuilt athlon 800 with 1/2 gig ram via k12ltsp 4.4.1. Our five terminals are old homebuilt pentium 1 class 233's connected with ethernet and floppys and etherboot to attach to the server. internet and office suites are the main use of the client machines. internet connection was already in place. |
| Outline the costs of installation: The client machines were old boxes that I bought from good will at ten to twenty dollars a piece. Purchased nics from Fry's for a buck a piece as I could when they were on sale. the hub was thirty dollars at that time. I get spare cable thrown out by various businesses. The server was my brother's computer. He was so fed up with viruses and the like so he converted to the mac and gave me his old machine. I did upgrade the ram for 100 dollars. A client me an old hp deskjet 500 they did not want anymore. My fiance was really happy we did not have to pay thousands of dollars to set up her lab and she will not have to have a admin costs. Now she will become profitable much sooner. Now other businesses are wanting me to do the same for them. |
| Comment on migration to Linux
based desktop applications: Open office imported all our existing
datafiles with out a hitch, so there was no real hitch on conversion.
|
| Konstantin Pizin
Tue Feb 21 12:03:35 2006 E-mail: koko@ninocom.net School Name: MWB |
| Location: Sofia ,Bulgaria School Info: 40 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Server AMD 2300+ ,1GB RAM ,40 GB HDD,2LAN 10/100TX CDRW 12 terminals P II 300MHz 64MB RAM HP VECTRA typical use Internet OOffice |
| Outline the costs of installation: Server $ 300 |
| Comment on
migration to Linux based desktop applications:
|
| Pete Scheid Tue
Feb 28 10:21:48 2006 E-mail: pete_scheid@boces.monroe.edu School Name: Penfield Central Schools |
| Location: Rochester, New York School Info: k-12, 5200 |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: We currently have two k12ltsp implementations. Both MPC servers have dual xeon 2GHz processors, 2GB RAM, RAID 1 with hot spare. 10/100/1000 ethernet. In one implementation we are using a gigabit switch. |
| Outline the costs of installation: Cost of implementation was basically limited to server purchases. Servers were roughly $6,200 each in 2003. Utilizing old HP Vectras and IBM 300PLs that were going to be disposed of. Per seat cost of about $270. Servers could support more users, which would further reduce costs. |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Kids in the 4th and 5th grade where we are
using K12LTSP absolutely love the applications. There would be a revolt
if we pulled the plug on K12LTSP. We are now in our 3rd year of using the
software. Mozilla / Firefox and OpenOffice.org work great. Getting sound
in web browser proved challenging. Connectivity to Windows server file
shares has some latency from time to time via SMB4K, not sure why.
Overall, the solutions have proved to be very stable and require VERY
LITTLE support. Zero service calls for our library server in the last 18
months!
|
| Shawn Sat May 20
01:20:33 2006 E-mail: lionel@fromru.com School Name: Shawn |
| Location: Portugal School Info: Shawn |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Nice site! [url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url] |
| Outline the costs of installation: Nice site! [url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url] |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Nice site!
[url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] |
[url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url]
|
| Ron Sat May 20
01:20:42 2006 E-mail: may@mail.com School Name: Ron |
| Location: United States School Info: Ron |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Good design! <a href="http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html">My homepage</a> | <a href="http://wphmdxzo.com/xoeh/uipa.html">Please visit</a> |
| Outline the costs of installation: Good design! <a href="http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html">My homepage</a> | <a href="http://wphmdxzo.com/xoeh/uipa.html">Please visit</a> |
| Comment on migration to Linux based
desktop applications: Good design!
<a href="http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html">My
homepage</a> | <a
href="http://wphmdxzo.com/xoeh/uipa.html">Please
visit</a>
|
| Jack Sat May 20
01:20:47 2006 E-mail: jack@mail15.com School Name: Jack |
| Location: Mexico School Info: Jack |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Good design! http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html | http://gvhznqdn.com/orva/cuuz.html |
| Outline the costs of installation: Good design! http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html | http://gvhznqdn.com/orva/cuuz.html |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: Good design!
http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html | http://gvhznqdn.com/orva/cuuz.html
|
| Shawn Sat May 20
01:24:50 2006 E-mail: lionel@fromru.com School Name: Shawn |
| Location: Portugal School Info: Shawn |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: Nice site! [url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url] |
| Outline the costs of installation: Nice site! [url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url] |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
Nice site!
[url=http://zelguiqr.com/vlzb/ktqi.html]My homepage[/url] |
[url=http://qsiepeso.com/kaza/sqhl.html]Cool site[/url]
|
| Peter Jones Wed
Jul 26 22:42:26 2006 E-mail: pcabpo0408@free-fast-email.com School Name: |
| Location: School Info: |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: |
| Outline the costs of installation: |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop applications:
|
| Jim Dobson Mon
Oct 2 23:36:15 2006 E-mail: ui.Dobson2397@spatzer.com School Name: None |
| Location: None School Info: None |
| Describe your K12-LTSP installation: None |
| Outline the costs of installation: None |
| Comment on migration to Linux based desktop
applications: None
|